As would be familiar to the person of ordinary skill in the art, a boiler requires extremely pure water in order to avoid a plurality of different problems. Unfortunately, water coming into most boilers is not pure enough to avoid these problems. Impurities in the water, including gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, would rapidly contaminate the water and damage the boiler.
In addition, steam generated in the boiler will condense into water used(referred to as condensate,) as it is used and returned to the boiler through condensate lines. Condensed steam (also referred to as condensate), which is generated in the boiler and accompanying boiler lines, is a major source of impurities. Condensate generally traps impurities, especially gases including oxygen and carbon dioxide, from the air and becomes contaminated. These impurities, as well as the typically acidic nature of condensate, create a corrosive environment in the condensate lines unless the condensate is treated chemically. The contaminated condensate inevitably reenters the pool of boiler water, thereby further contaminating the boiler water. Other problems including accumulation of scale, maintenance of pH, boiler pitting by oxygen, and the generation of carbonic acid in the water may occur as a result of contaminated boiler water. Therefore, the contaminants must be removed or treated.
Various chemical compositions are used for the treatment of water in boilers as well as other devices such as cooling towers. Typically, these chemical compositions are liquid products containing one or more components, which are manufactured and then shipped in containers such as drums, to the end users. The process is labor and material intensive and requires the shipment of heavy drums which must be disposed of once the chemical product is used.
Accordingly, improved dry solid treatment compositions are desirable as they ease the transportation and handling of the treatment composition. In addition, is also desirable to provide improved powder compositions that effectively treat impurities from boiler condensate streams, and it is additionally desirable to provide improved methods to produce these improved powder compositions.